Surfaced
by BellatrixLestrangey
Summary: After almost drowning, Azula takes up a fear of water. Suki, a lifeguard, helps her overcome it and begins teaching her to swim.


Azula had been afraid of water ever since she could recall. There was a time when she had been able to waddle past her fears. So long as she was accompanied by a stronger swimmer, she could power through it. Mostly she would stay in the shallow end; if her feet could touch, she would be okay.

Until the day when she wasn't.

It was a summer when she was ten years in age. Mid-July, if she recalled right. Zuko had brought her to the pool, he said that he would stay with her. And he did, until he decided that it was more important to one up Ruon-Jian in front of Mai via the diving board. "I'll only be just a moment." He had vowed.

It had only taken just a moment. Azula has trouble recalling exactly what had happened, but she remembered going under. She thinks that she might have been feeling bold that day and went, quite literally, in over her head. No matter how it had happened, it did. She remembers, most vividly, the person who had pulled her out. A spunky, chatty girl who had no volume control. The girl who she recalled hating very much for no real reason other than that she was simply annoying. A girl named Suki.

She hasn't been back to the pool since and has no intentions of going back. She however, has seen Suki since. Naturally the girl continued to annoy her to no end; chatty, loud, decently competitive, and with a tendency to brag. And that was without mentioning how much pleasure the girl took in reminding Azula that she had pulled her out of the pool flailing and panicked. That was exactly where she found common ground with Toph, apparently the blind girl had taken a stumble into the pool at one point and had to be rescued. She would say that Toph had it worse, at least Azula hadn't kissed Suki. Not then anyhow. That would come a few summers later.

This summer-many kisses in, Suki had landed herself a job as a lifeguard, well earned if Azula had to say. Clearly her past rescues hadn't went unnoticed. And a word from her father, respected as he was, could never hurt.

Today was Suki's day off, she had promised to take Azula for ice cream. Frankly she didn't even like ice cream, but she liked Suki enough to pretend that she did. Azula slipped herself into the booth with a note to the waitress that she was expecting company. As per usual the girl took her time in getting there.

"You're late." Azula remarked when she finally sat down.

"You said, 'around 3:30' not 'at 3:30', so I figured that it would be fine to show up a little late." She smiled innocently, reminding her faintly of TyLee.

Azula glanced at the clock. "I swear, if you're ever more than ten minutes late, I'm leaving."

"Good thing I'm usually five minutes late."

Azula made a mental note to tell her to meet up at 3:25 next time.

"Sooo…" Suki started.

Azula was already groaning, a drawn out 'so' always led into the kind of question she instantaneously answered with a firm no.

"I was wondering if you wanted to visit me at work."

Crafty wording, Azula had to appreciate that much. "You mean, go to the pool?"

"I do work at one of those." She nodded.

"And you want me to actively make my way over to it?"

"My mom is getting tired of driving my lunch over."

"Then pack it?"

Suki made a face, "no thanks, I like my meals fresh and hot."

Azula could respect that. "Fine, I'll bring you your lunch."

 **.oOo.**

For all the careful wordplay and scheming she had done in her lifetime, Azula ought to have known that she'd be sitting precariously close to the pool. By lunch, Suki had meant, 'I'll wait until my shift is almost over to eat and then we're going swimming.' When all else failed and Suki respond to 'I don't have my swimsuit' by pulling out a brand new one in her size and favorite color, Azula folded her arms over her chest, determined not to budge even slightly.

She hated that Suki was becoming as clever as she.

"Go on and get dressed." Suki tossed the swimsuit down to her.

"Absolutely not."

"Alright, let the scary, evil water win." Suki taunted.

Azula rolled her eyes. It was all she could do, most everyone knew she was afraid of water and she did believe that water was evil…

"You never let fear hold you back before. Why now?"

Azula hushed her, "not so loud!"

"I'll talk quieter if you promise to get in the water."

"If you don't stop right now, I will get in the water and make your job much more interesting." Azula threatened. A poor threat in hindsight.

Suki smirked, "that works for me."

Azula knew that she shouldn't have caved in the first place, she should have stayed home with a bottle of tanning lotion, a pair of sunglasses, and a lawn chair. "Of course it does." She grumbled.

Chan arrived to take over the lifeguard chair sooner than Azula would have liked. She was in the water much sooner than she preferred. Her only source of solace was Suki's arms, wrapped tightly around her. They were the only things keeping her from going under as she worked Azula through the most basic swimming strokes. "I can't believe no one has taught you to swim." Suki mutters occasionally, more to herself.

"Father doesn't have time and mother was too busy teaching Zuzu." Azula answered, if for no other reason than to take her mind off of the water ebbing around her body.

"You're so graceful on land, I think that once you actually let go of me, you'll be really good at this."

"You're holding me!" Azula snapped.

"Because you won't let me stop." Suki pointed out, doing her best to ignore the argumentative tone in her girlfriend's voice. Azula had a habit of getting grumpy when she was distressed and afraid.

Azula sniffed crossly. She knew that Suki was right, she needed to let go. "Fine, you can step back." Quickly, perhaps too much so, she added, "but stay close to me."

"I will. Just relax." Suki smiled reassuringly. "Just remember to keep your mouth closed if you go underwater."

"Going underwater wasn't…"

"Part of the plan, I know." Suki filled in. "But if you do go under, don't open your mouth."

She had learned that lesson when she was ten. Reluctantly she let Suki withdraw her arms and take a step back.

"You good?"

"So far." Azula replied. Taking the care to keep her head above the surface she attempted a rather messy version of the stroke Suki called, 'freestyle.' Apparently that's what everyone called it. Everyone but Azula herself, who had declared that all strokes are the same.

"You're doing good, I told you that you would."

"Good? I'm not getting anywhere."

"Well yes, that's because you're head is above the water. That doesn't exactly make it easy for the water to flow around you."

Azula tilted her head.

"Think about a car; boxy hoods aren't as aerodynamic as rounded ones. Swimming with your head up creates drag."

"So I'm supposed to put my head underwater?"

Suki nodded.

"Then how do I breathe."

"You turn your head to the side, take a quick breath and face down again." Suki paused. "We'll worry about speed and making it look good later, right now you need to learn how to keep yourself above the water."

Azula scoffed, she hated every minute of this. Everyone else could swim so naturally…

Suki squeezed her shoulder. "Look at this, you've only been working with me for a few hours and you're already okay with standing in the deep end."

Azula tensed, she hadn't realized just how far from the shallow end she'd gotten herself. "I want to go back." She spoke just as stiffly.

"Alright, then swim there."

Azula scrunched her nose. She supposed that if she could get herself to the deep end, she could make her way back. It would be alright, if anything, Suki was right there. Just as clumsily as her first attempt, she made her way towards the shallow end.

"Impressive." Mai remarked from the edge of the pool. It took a moment for Azula to realize that she was talking to Suki. "You got her into the pool."

"I don't know, I think that she kind of wanted to give it another try."

"Did I?" Azula grumbled.

"If you didn't you wouldn't be in here." Suki pointed out.

Truth be told, she was rather proud of herself. She couldn't imagine shying away from the pool forever. It wasn't like her. "I suppose." She replied. And truth be told, it wasn't as bad as she'd forseen. Though she wasn't planning on leaving Suki's side anytime soon, not until they were safely on land. Though, stubborn as she was, she wasn't planning on leaving that pool until she felt confident in her ability to get from one end of it to the other.


End file.
